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I didn't grow up wanting to be in a band. I didn't spend every summer of my childhood at a folk festival. I don't come from a long line of musicians and singers. I didn't save up my pocket money to buy my first guitar, and I didn't pour out all my adolescent frustrations a...
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For the first time Opera North’s new venue, the Howard Assembly Room hosted screenings as part of 23rd Leeds International Film Festival.
Ahead of a short trip to my home city of Berlin, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, I decided to foll...
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One of the things I really like about the Howard Assembly Room is the sheer range of different events we host in the space. Over the last ten months we have hosted cutting edge chamber opera, jazz from Poland, recitals with French and Russian singers, talks about Stalin’s ...
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At the time of writing this piece, I have just completed 31 years as a member of the Orchestra of Opera North (along with 8 or 9 of my colleagues). I can’t believe that I am still here (and nor can some of my work-mates!) It feels great to have been ever-present during the...
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This week I’m making the final preparations for our Sing ON: Puccini event on Saturday. It’s especially exciting as this is only the second composer-based Sing ON event we’ve done – Sing ON: Verdi back in May was the maiden voyage for this new format, so I still feel as if...
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What happens when you put a Norwegian composer who makes music entirely from ice, a Leeds filmmaker and a lot of people celebrating Light Night together? The short answer is that we don’t know yet! Our atmospheric Idea of North installation will be seen for the very first ...
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Tomorrow we will open the Howard Assembly Room (HAR) autumn season, some 30 events or so that will take us up to Christmas and round off a spectacular first year of public performances. Over the last year we've learnt a huge amount about this extraordinary building; how it...
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